If you want to get in on the ground floor of a new mobile processing chip, you can finally do so with Asus' Transformer Prime tablet; the Android 3.2 based device is officially the first product that will have NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor inside. The quad-core chip is the successor to the dual-core Tegra 2 that has been used in a large number of high end Android-based smartphones and tablets in the past year.

The Verge reports that shipments of the Transformer Prime have begun for Amazon customers who have pre-ordered the tablet; pre-order shipments have also started over at TigerDirect Canada. However, Engadget reports that orders for the tablet at Best Buy have now been back ordered with the retailer telling customers they won't start shipping it for another week or two. It appears that those customers won't be getting the Transporter Prime under their Christmas tree.

Asus has already sent out a statement saying it expects all pre-orders for the tablet to be fulfilled "shortly" and that the Transformer Prime will be in retail stores "in the very near future". The statement added, "We will reach normal inventory levels in January for the North American market based on current orders and forecasts."

Just a reminder: the 10.1 inch device comes in two versions; 32 GB for US$499 or 64 GB for US$599. Both versions weight 1.29 pounds, contain 1 GB of RAM, a micro SD card slot, and a micro HDMI port; they also have a 1.2 megapixel front camera and an eight megapixel rear camera. An optional US$149 dock allows the tablet to have a notebook-like keyboard.